It turns out the only thing more uncomfortable than an episode of Chelsea Lately is life after the late E! talk show.

During a Sirius XM interview on Tuesday, former host Chelsea Handler responded to Lately writer Heather McDonald‘s recent comments about Handler being a hellish boss. (“I lived in fear, 100 percent fear,” McDonald said. “I enjoyed my time there … but something could happen and my heart would be beating and I’d be like, ‘Is this it?'”) As you might expect, Handler did not mince words.

“She would never say anything to my face,” Handler said. “She would only say that on the radio. She would never, ’cause she’s f–ing scared, and she should be. Now she should be really scared. … I could have fired her, but instead I just stopped spending any personal time with her.”

And Handler — whose new show Chelsea Does premieres Jan. 23 on Netflix — didn’t exactly deny that life at Lately could occasionally get, shall we say, difficult.

“I mean … a million things happen, you’re at work,” she conceded. “You’re not a nice person every day. But never like that. “You can’t be scared to be at work, this isn’t a concentration camp. You should quit then. Go quit.”

(Editor’s note: Handler should definitely re-use that slogan while recruiting future employees: “Come work for me! It’s… not a concentration camp!”)